Folklore of the Santal Parganas - Cecil Henry Bompas (paper ebook reader .TXT) 📗

was fixed for the wedding and the

booth built for the ceremony and the bridegroom's party went to the

bride's house and the marriage took place in due form and the bride

was escorted to her husband's house.

 

Every night when her husband was asleep, the bride used to come out

of the dog's skin and go out of the house; and when her husband found

out this, he one night only pretended to go to sleep and lay watching

her, and when she was about to leave the room he jumped up and caught

hold of her and seizing the dog skin, threw it into the fire, where

it was burnt to ashes, so his bride remained a woman, but she was

of more than human beanty. This soon became known in the village and

everyone congratulated the herdboy on his wisdom in marrying a dog.

 

Now the herdboy had a friend named Jitu and when Jitu saw what a

prize his friend had got, he thought that he could not do better

than marry a dog himself. His relations made no objection and a

bride was selected and the marriage took place, but when they were

putting vermilion on the bride's forehead she began to growl; but

in spite of her growling they dragged her to the bridegroom's house,

and forcibly anointed her with oil and turmeric; but when the bride's

party set off home, the dog broke loose and ran after them; then

everyone shouted to Jitu to run after his bride and bring her back,

but she only growled and bit at him, so that he had at last to give

it up. Then everyone laughed at him so much that he was too ashamed

to speak, and two or three days later he hanged himself.

LXXXVI. (Wealth or Wisdom.)

 

Once upon a time there were a Raja and a rich merchant, and they

each had one son. The two boys went to the same school and in the

course of time became great friends; they were always together out of

school hours; the merchant's son would take his meals at the Raja's

palace or the Raja's son would eat with his friend at the merchant's

house. One day the two youths began a discussion as to whether wealth

or wisdom were the more powerful: the Raja's son said that wealth

was most important, while the merchant's son declared for wisdom; the

discussion waxed hot and neither would yield his opinion. At last the

merchant's son declared; "It is of no use for us to argue like this,

let us put it to the test: let us both go to some far country and

take service with some master for a year, and try whether wealth or

wisdom is the more successful." The Prince agreed to this plan and

they fixed a day for starting

 

Then they both went home and collected what money they could lay hands

on and, when the time arrived, started off early one morning. After

they had travelled some distance the Prince began to think of how his

parents must be searching for him, for he had said nothing about his

going away; but the merchant's son comforted him by saying that he

had left word of their intentions at his home, and his relations would

tell the Raja; so they continued on their way, and after a time they

came to a certain country where the merchant's son proposed that they

should look for employment. But now that it had come to the point, the

prince did not like the idea of becoming a servant and he said that he

would live on the money which he had brought with him, and which would

last for a year or two. "You may do as you like" answered his friend

"but for my part I must look for work." So he went to a village and

found employment as a teacher in a school; his pupils gave him his

food and also some small wages, so that he had enough to live on,

without spending any of the money he had brought with him.

 

Meanwhile the Raja's son hired a house in the village and began

to lead a riotous life; in a very short time He had wasted all his

money on his evil companions and was reduced to absolute starvation;

for when his money came to an end, all his so-called friends deserted

him. Thin and wretched, he went to the merchant's son and asked him

either to take him back to his father's home or to find him work. His

friend agreed to find him some employment, and after a little enquiry

heard of a farmer who wanted a servant to take a bullock out to graze

and to fill a trough with water once a day. The prince thought that

he could easily manage that amount of work, so he went to the farmer

and engaged himself as his servant.

 

The terms of service were these:--If the prince threw up his work one

of his little fingers was to be cut off, but if the farmer dismissed

him while he was working well then the farmer was to lose a little

finger; and if the prince grazed the bullock and filled the trough

with water regularly, he was to get as much cooked rice as would

cover a plantain leaf, but if he did not do the work he was to get

only what would go on a tamarind leaf. The prince readily agreed to

these terms, for he thought that the work would not take him more than

an hour or two. But unhappily for him, things did not turn out as he

expected. On the first morning he took the bullock out to graze, but

the animal would not eat; whenever it saw any other cattle passing,

it would gallop off to join them, and when the prince had run after

it and brought it back, nothing would make it graze quietly; it

kept running away in one direction or another with the prince in

pursuit. So at last he had to bring it home and shut it up in the

cow-shed and even that he found difficult.

 

Then they set him to filling the trough, and he found that he could

not do that either, for the trough had a hole in the bottom and had

been set over the mouth of an old well; and as fast as the prince

poured the water in, it ran away, but he was too stupid to see what

was the matter and went on pouring till he was quite tired out; so as

he had not completed the tasks set him, he only got a tamarind leaf

full of rice for his supper; this went on every day and the prince

began to starve, but he was afraid to run away and tell his troubles

to the merchant's son, lest he should have his little finger cut off.

 

But the merchant's son had not forgotten his friend and began to

wonder why the Prince kept away from him. So one day he went to pay

him a visit and was horrified to find him looking so ill and starved;

when he heard how the prince was only getting a tamarind leaf full

of rice every day, because he could not perform the task set him, he

offered to change places with the Prince and sent him off to teach in

the school while he himself stayed with the farmer. The next morning

the merchant's son took the bullock out to graze and he also found

that the animal would not graze quietly but spent its time in chasing

the other cattle, so at noon he brought it home and set to work to

fill the trough; he soon found the hole in the bottom through which

the water escaped and stopped it up with a lump of clay and then he

easily filled the trough to the brim. Then in the afternoon he took

the bullock out again to graze and when he brought it back at sunset

he was given a plantain leaf full of rice; this meant more food than

he could possibly eat in a day.

 

He was determined that the bullock should not give him any more

trouble, so the next morning when he took it out to graze, he took with

him a thick rope and tethered the animal to a tree; this saved him

all the trouble of running after it, but it was clear that it would

not get enough to eat in that way, so he made up his mind to get rid

of it altogether, and when he took it out in the afternoon, he took

with him a small axe and drove the bullock to a place where a herd of

cattle were grazing and then knocked it on the head with the axe and

threw the body into a ravine near by. Then he hid the axe and ran off

to his master and told him that the bullock had started fighting with

another animal in the herd and had been pushed over the edge of the

ravine and killed by the fall. The farmer went out to see for himself

and when he found the dead body lying in the ravine he could not but

believe the story, and had no fault to find with his cunning servant.

 

A few days later, as the rice crop was ripe, the farmer told the

merchant's son to go to the fields to reap the rice. "How shall I

reap it?" asked he. "With a sickle," replied the farmer. "Then it

will be the the sickle and not I, that reaps it" "As you like,"

said the farmer, "you go along with the sickle, no doubt it knows

all about it;" so they got him a sickle and he went off to the

fields. When he got there, he noticed how bright the sickle looked,

and when he touched it, he found it quite hot from being carried

in the sun. "Dear, dear," said he, "I cannot let this sickle reap

the rice: it is so hot that it must have very bad fever; I will let

it rest in the shade until it gets better," so he laid it down in a

shady spot and began to stroll about. Presently up came the farmer,

and was very angry to find no work going on. "Did I send you out to

stroll about, or to start cutting the rice?" roared he. "To cut the

rice," answered the merchant's son, "but the sickle has fallen ill

with high fever and is resting in the shade; come and feel how hot

it is." "You are nothing but an idiot," answered the farmer. "You

are no good here; go back home and start a fire in the big house and

boil some water by the time I get back." The merchant's son was only

on the lookout for an excuse to annoy the farmer and the words used

by the farmer were ambiguous; so he went straight back to the farm

and set the biggest house on fire. The farmer saw the conflagration

and came rushing home and asked the merchant's son what on earth he

meant by doing such mischief. "I am only doing exactly what you told

me; nothing would induce me to disobey any order of yours, my worthy

master." The farmer had nothing more to say; his words would bear the

construction put upon them by the merchant's son, and he was afraid

to dismiss him lest he should have to lose his little finger; so he

made up his mind to get rid of this inconvenient servant in another

way, and the next day he called him and told him that he must send

word to his father-in-law of the unfortunate burning of the house,

and the merchant's son must carry the letter.

 

The latter accordingly set off with the letter, but on the road he

thought that it would be just as well